


stories

by rhyol1te



Category: Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie
Genre: Gen, Ro2SID, and there is mention of her killing some people, please note that while no archive warnings apply annander mianaai is most definitly anaander mianaai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:47:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23205715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhyol1te/pseuds/rhyol1te
Summary: Anaander Mianaai hears stories from outside the Radch. And then she chooses to ignore them.My part of the Ro2SID exchange 2020, for jwash!
Comments: 8
Kudos: 14
Collections: Republic of Two Systems Independence Day Exchange 2020





	stories

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jwash](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jwash/gifts).



> The prompt was _stories from outside the radch_ , and while this was probably not the direction that you intended it to be taken, I hope you enjoy!

At first, when Anaander Mianaai had just left the Radch on her mission to bring justice, propriety, and benefit to the universe, Anaander Mianaai waited eagerly for any news of the glory that was sure to be emanating from the Radch.

The proper Radch, that is. The Dyson sphere, not whatever that usurping version of Anaander Mianaai, the one that Anaander Mianaai tells herself (herselves, now?) that she never trusted anyway. The half of herself who decided that she should leave the Radch to form an Empire, the one who she fought until she was almost down to her last bodies, both parts of her.

(She listens for news, and delights, somewhat, in the news that the Radchaai Empire grows, but the news is always laced with the memories of what had happened for her to be where she is today, to be both leading the Radch and exiled from it to fight on its behalf. She's... unsure about how to feel about it. She pushes that down, though. The last time she was unsure about something she split into two, and she wishes to avoid ever having to do _that_ again.)

"I always distrusted that half of me," she tells her youngest, newest bodies, using her vocal chords. The bodies are too young to be hooked up - only a few days old, and their skulls need to harden before the implants can go in, but they're not too young to be told of the story of how they came to be, and what they need to protect.

One of her younger selves gnaws on her thumb. She moves her thumb, and then puts the baby down. Outside the Radch, Anaander Mianaai tells her, she wears gloves as to remain pure.

_Like anything outside the Radch could remain pure,_ Anaander Mianaai mutters to herself. Silently this time; there isn't anyone besides herself who would hear, here in her perfect, pure hallway in the center of the Radch. Purity outside the Radch - the very idea is an oxymoron.

She still waits, though, for any news of what's happening outside the Radch. Just because she chose not to leave doesn't mean she's uninterested in what's happening beyond it.

Not that she'd tell that to anyone beyond herself, of course. She knows how to retain control, and control means that no one but her gets to know of the small but growing empire outside. If they knew, they might want to leave, and she wouldn't let any of her people leave.

Later, that interest wanes somewhat. Maybe it's the war, maybe it's the way that it never ends: Anaander Mianaai always pushing forward, always taking over new planets in the name of Amaat (it's just, it has to be. It's proper, because bringing Amaat and puruty to the world has to be. it's beneficial to - well, to Anaander Mianaai), and those planets never put up any real fight.

Oh, they try, of course.

They try, and then they fail, because Amaat is not on their side, but as the news about what is outside of the Radch comes in to her (and only her, she knows how to retain control) , she can't help but be a bit bored with it.

So she turns inward. She turns the Radch into a beacon of righteousness, the light of Amaat bounced between its walls until it's stronger than ever. A mirrored globe of virtue. Of order. Of justice. Of propriety. Of benefit.

(The benefit is to the Radch as a whole, of course. Not to her, never to her. She does everything she does for the good of the Radch and its people.)

The greatest disruption to that light is when the remaining Notai decide that they, too, would really like to be outside the Radch, bringing the light and order of Amaat to the universe. Anaander Mianaai very nearly fights another war with herself over that one, very nearly splits again.

She doesn't, though.

She kills all of the traitor pieces of herself that would sympathize with the heretics that would leave the Radch (quetly, in her sleep. She wouldn't want to cause herself pain).

She takes the heretics who would leave the Radch, fingers (metaphorically) red with blood from (metaphorically) clawing at the walls and order and light that she's set up, and she flings them outside like a child casting away an old and unwanted toy.

She hears later, from that other part of her (the only one who will understand her, she thinks to herself once, and then doesn't think of it again) that the Notai she cast out didn't merge peacefully with the Radchaai empire. There was a war, she hears, with destroyed ships, and shattered stations, and fragmented cultures.

She doesn't really care: there are more important things where she is. Nothing outside the Radch could compare to what's inside it.

So she stops hearing the stories from outside of the Radch, and she shuts herself off from that other Anaander Mianaai. She doesn't listen to the stories anymore (or at least, her oldest bodies don't. sometimes the younger ones need to be taught what they should avoid).

She is complicate and unbroken (she thinks) (she hopes), and the perfection that is the Radch, _her_ Radch, is as well.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos make me super happy! <3


End file.
